L to R-Del Walton, Brandon Phillips and Julian de Lusarreta battle for control of the ball in Joe Barry Memorial Cup action.
Postage Stamp Farm (Annabelle Gundlach, Brandon Phillips, Mariano Aguerre and Kris Kampsen) earned their first 20-goal win of the season in the opening round of play in the 2017 Joe Barry Memorial Cup at the International Polo Club Thursday afternoon by scoring a 13-12 win over a veteran Coca-Cola lineup (Gillian Johnston, Julian de Lusarreta, Julio Arellano and Del Walton).
A well-coordinated Postage Stamp Farm attack put the first three goals on the scoreboard behind the play of 6-goaler Kris Kampsen. Julian de Lusarreta managed to record a goal for Coca-Cola in the final seconds of the chukker to trail, 3-1.
Kampsen’s hot streak continued into the second period as he scored the first goal of the chukker at the end of a 200-yad long run toward the goal. Kampsen converted a 30-yard penalty shot for a goal to make it 5-1, Postage Stamp Farm. Single goals from Julio Arellano and de Lusarreta ended the period with Postage Stamp Farm holding their two-goal lead, 5-3.
Coca-Cola got some traction in the third, led by de Lusarreta’s third goal of the game. Consecutive goals from Del Walton first tied the game at 5-5 and then gave Coca-Cola the 6-5 lead at the end of the first half.
A penalty conversion by Kampsen came in the opening 3 seconds of the second half, tying the game at 6-6. Coca-Cola responded with a goal from the field from de Lusarreta to take the lead back, 7-6. Kampsen closed out the scoring with his second goal of the chukker and his seventh goal of the day. The score was level at 7-7.
Postage Stamp Farm reeled off four consecutive goals in the fifth with Kampsen scoring two more goals and teammates Mariano Aguerre and Brandon Phillips each adding a goal to give Postage Stamp Farm a four-goal, 11-7 advantage. The final goal of the period came from de Lusarreta, but it was Postage Stamp Farm with the 11-8 edge with one period left in regulation play.
A stubborn Coca-Cola team rallied for four goals in the sixth chukker, two coming from de Lusarreta and Arellano and Walton adding single goals. Kampsen’s tenth goal of the day came on a 40-yard penalty shot and regulation time ended in a 12-12 tie, forcing a sudden-death overtime chukker.
After a brief recess both teams returned to the field on fresh mounts with neither side being able to claim superiority. Each side had several scoring opportunities but either effective defense or misdirected shots let them down. With just 3:36 on the game clock, Aguerre broke through the Coca-Cola defenders and scored the winning goal for Postage Stamp Farm.
Kampsen led the field with ten goals on the day (five on penalty shots). Aguerre added two goals and Phillips scored once for the win. Coca-Cola’s de Lusarreta scored a team-high seven goals, all from the field. Walton was credited with three goals with Arellano scoring once from the field and once on a penalty shot in the loss.
Grand Champions 12, Goose Creek 11
Earlier in the day, Grand Champions (Grant Ganzi, Inaki Laprida, Nic Roldan and Juancito Bollini) scored a 12-11 win over Goose Creek (Maureen Brennan, Peke Gonzalez, Mariano Gonzalez and Tomas Garcia del Rio) behind seven goals from Nic Roldan.
Joe Barry Memorial action continues on Saturday with two games on the schedule. In a noon contest, La Indiana (Michael Bickford, Jeff Hall, Mike Azzaro and Gringo Columbres) will face Tonkawa (Jeff Hildebrand, Sapo Caset, Costi Caset and Facundo Obregon). Both teams carry 1-0 records into the game. In a 3pm match, Villa del Lago (Jim Zenni, Agustin Obregon, Hilario Ulloa and Carlucho Arellano) and Mt. Brilliant will each try to get into the winning column, having both suffered opening tournament losses.